


Dungeons & Dragons & Gay

by MadKingMomo



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Characters play D&D, Cliche, D&D, Eventual Romance, F/M, Feel-good, Happy Ending, M/M, Slow Burn, Teen Romance, this is gonna get gay and cliche
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2020-07-21 06:33:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19997431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadKingMomo/pseuds/MadKingMomo
Summary: “You gotta give me the low-down, like, who’s the jocks, the plastics, and the one cheerleader who’s dating the most popular guy in the school but will leave him for me when we have a real intimate moment before prom.”Except instead of a cheerleader, there’s Lukas “I don’t have friends, I have acquaintances” Bondevik, the extremely extra fantasy nerd and instead of there being a real intimate moment before prom, there’s perfectly bitter coffee and terrible games of D&D.[ Human/High School AU feat. APH South Korea x APH Norway. Why? Because, why not? ]





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
>  **Human Names**
> 
> All names are the same as canonically stated by Himaruya - with a few exceptions.  
> As new characters appear in the story, their names will be added to this list.  
>    
> APH Denmark ; Mathias Hansen  
> APH Iceland ; Eirikur Styrsson  
> APH Norway ; Lukas Bondevik  
> APH Romania ; Andrei Kogălniceanu  
> APH South Korea ; Hyunwoo Im  
>   
>  **Key Words**
> 
> As new important terms appear in the story, they will be added to this list. 
> 
> D20 ; Dice with 20 sides  
> D&D ; Dungeons and Dragons  
> DM ; Dungeon Master, aka the person in charge of a Dungeons and Dragons session  
> DMing ; Being/To Be/Is the Dungeon Master  
> Lillebror ; Little brother in Norwegian  
> Natural One ; The worst possible role on the die anyone can make. Usually results in the action failing miserably ( For example, your character bends over to tie their shoe, accidentally kneeing themselves in the eye as they topple forward into oncoming traffic. Cars swerve to avoid your character and crash into a nearby gas station, causing a massive explosion that claims thirteen lives. Your shoelaces are still untied. )  
> Krumkake ; a Norwegian butter cookie.  
> 

To those around him, Lukas had always appeared as some sort of Ice King - emotionless, stoic and, invulnerable - but that just wasn’t so. He had plenty of emotions, far too many, really. They were all jumbled up in his mind, scarcely kept from spilling over the sides and pouring out of his eyes, his stubborn pride being their only road-block. He wasn’t about to go flaunting his emotions off to the world like a stripper flashing her ass. No, that wasn’t what he wanted at all. He didn’t want to be recognizable, he didn’t want to be noticed, he didn’t want to be acknowledged at all. What he wanted was to be nothing more than a faint memory in his peers’ lives, a wavering shadow of a stone-faced boy they had perhaps gone to school with once. And thus far, it was working. The classmates he had known for years scarcely looked his way, their eyes glazing over his figure as if he weren’t even there. It was as if he were a modern-day ghost, haunting the halls of a high school for some unknown reason. No one said hello to him as he walked passed the crowds, no one hung around his locker between classes, and no one bothered him during lunch. 

And everything was perfect.

Or, at least, that’s how Lukas thought of himself.

In reality, there wasn’t a single senior who didn’t know the name Lukas Bondevik. It wasn’t as if he were famous for anything, there were plenty of people just as skilled in the sciences, tons of nerds far nerdier than he, countless violinists with a penchant for classical. 

So, how? How did all these people know who he was? How did they know his name and why would they say hello to him each and every morning if they were just to be ignored with vacant stares? 

  
Because they were reasonable human beings in a relatively small high school.  
That’s why.

* * *

As per usual, Lukas was slouched in his chair without a care in the world, his gaze far too distracted by the tittering sounds of nearby birds just outside the confines of the classroom. Their carefree world seemed so much more utopian than the horrors of the humanity. If he could have anything in the world, he’d wish to be a bird and he’d soar away from all the petty bullshit that accompanied high school life. He’d spend his days under the sun, spreading his wings beneath the golden glow as the light softly filtered through his silently ruffled feathers, his nights spent under the protection of a lofty tree, golden-green leaves shielding him from the harshest of winds. For once in his life, he’d feel free. University applications, job applications - none of these useless things would be his problem anymore. He’d no longer be bound by human responsibilities, his only concerns about his most basic survival needs and defending his home from the nosy tui that kept popping up on the edges of his territory. But alas, he was born a human and cursed forever to trudge through the consumerist machine that comes with living in a full democracy. He was bound to this desk like each and every other student was, their urgent curiosity being quickly quashed by a strict regime of rules and spoon-fed facts.

The sound of a scraping chair startled him from his wistful dreams and aching complaints, the perpetually empty desk beside him finally being filled with another angst-ridden teen. 

The previous owner of the desk had been the most annoying man he’d ever met. He’d transferred to the class over last summer and had an annoying tendency to try and include Lukas in various social events. The man just didn’t understand that no, Lukas did not want any friends. He was fine, he was fine with his lunches spent in the library - pouring over worlds that extended past the boundaries of the one they resided in, content in the silent conversation he held with the words spilling before his eyes and the occasional magic discussion with those he fondly thought of as acquaintances . But that man was having none of that, forcibly inserting himself into Lukas’ life, time and time again. Yet, Lukas still found himself missing the company. There was something uniquely interesting about a man who could bounce back from endless streams of insults with a new joke or two. Most people would abandon all hope once Lukas had let the first few fly, but the man was clearly far too dense to pick up on the whole ‘leave-me-alone-or-i’ll-hit-you-dammnit’. Truth be told, the man was his first crush.

But not everything was to be, and the man who had been his only ‘friend’ left with the summer, and Lukas was left alone yet again. Well, until now, that is.

His new deskmate appeared to be grabbing his textbooks out at random, wildly stacking them upon his desk whilst simultaneously doing _something_ on his far-too-large-why-don’t-you-just-use-a-nokia cellphone. It did not appear to be very efficient. He kept getting distracted between the two tasks, causing his desk to wind up as a bit of a mess. It didn’t take long before his deskmate managed to get confused, laying his cellphone on his desk and holding his opened pencil case up as if he were going to somehow take a selfie via pencils. Needless to say, the man was assaulted by all sorts of odd stationery staples as they went skittering across the lightly deflated carpet. Scrambling to his knees, the man hastily tried to sweep up the rogue pens as they rolled away from his grasp. 

Now Lukas wasn’t completely heartless, he wasn’t the type to stand by and watch as others suffered before him, and he would almost always help someone in need. But that didn’t mean he was about to crawl about the ground cleaning up after someone’s stupid mistake. No, his type of ‘helping’ in this situation involved kicking whatever made its way under his desk in the _general_ direction of the man, keeping his expression taut and lips shut. 

“Hey, thanks. Aha, I can’t believe I managed to fuck up that badly. I’ve only been here for, like, five minutes!”

The voice was strange, sounding almost monotonous in nature and running just a tad too quickly - and, strangest of all, the voice appeared to be talking to _him._

Even in his sudden state of surprise, Lukas maintained a faux blank expression, returning the sentiment with nothing more than a few blinks. If there was one thing he hated above all else, it was talking to strangers. And this man, his deskmate, was a stranger. As such, he was clearly bound by his solemn vow to not engage in meaningless small talk with strangers. Engaging in small talk could lead to friendship, followed by party invites, excessive drinking, and DEATH. Small talk = certain death, and that was one hundred percent true. No matter how much his statistics teacher harped on about correlation not meaning causation, Lukas was _certain_ that his line of logic was completely unflawed. Besides, there really was no useful way for him to continue this conversation - so why the fuck would he bother? 

The stranger, on the other hand, had clearly not gotten the memo and was continuing his frustrating habit of attempting to make conversation now that he’d managed to gather his spilled supplies.

“So, like, my name’s Hyunwoo. I’m new here, obviously, uh...what’s your name?”

“Lukas.”

“Cool! Nice to meet you, Lukas. What’s it like around here?”

“School.”

“...Ahh, okay. Good talk, good talk.”

And with that their first, and hopefully last, conversation had drawn to an awkward close. 

It was just in time really, as the dreary drone of their teacher’s voice began to wash over the classroom, pouring in through one ear and gushing out the other, as all the students waited for the time to tick by. All the students except one, that is. 

Hyunwoo appeared to be paying rapt attention to the teacher, his eager expression one that would surely be crushed within a week or two within this drab setting. There wasn’t a single soul who escaped this high school, or any other really, with their unique curiosity intact. The system had a habit of strapping their enthusiastic youths to wearisome desks, shoving mindless facts into their mouths each time they attempted to voice their curiosity, pulling them further and further into the myths of adulthood with vague orders of maturity and sensibility, until the human that was left was nothing more than a husk of their former being. 

Or at least, that’s how Lukas saw it.

Which was why he spent his days watching in awe at the lush landscape that sat right outside his window, ignoring the tediously bland comings and goings of the classroom - it was his way of ‘sticking it to the man’. Who the man was, he had no idea, but he certainly was sticking it to him.

The silent buzz of his cellphone distracted him from his own thoughts, a quick glare at the teacher confirming that they were not looking this way, before he discreetly pulled it out.

_[ Text: Lillebror ] I just got your texts >:( _

_[ Text: Lillebror ] Stop sending me pictures of cats at 3am!!!_

_[ Text: Lillebror ] ...That last one was cute tho._

There were few things in life that could make him smile - and Eirikur was one of them. From the time he first held him in his arms, as the frail child gazed at him with sugar dripped eyes, his whole body wracked with inaudible shudders as he sipped at the air, stealing Lukas’ heart away with a singularly clumsy blink. 

“-kas Bondevik!” Sharp taps against the whiteboard caught him by surprise, the teacher’s displeased grimace taking a hold of his attention. “Did you hear what I just asked you, or were you too busy looking at your phone?”

“ _No-_ I...uh,” He stumbled, his words falling over each other, dizzyingly tipping into a jumbled heap his brain just couldn’t decipher in time. Lukas absolutely abhorred being singled out - whether it be for good reasons or bad - how could he hide from the world if the world was watching him, their undivided attention punching holes through his body as they stared him down. 

Staring at the steadily blurring words scratched onto the whiteboard, Lukas searched for a clue - an answer that would make his teacher stop asking him questions, his classmates stop looking at him, his-

“It was February 6th,.”

-And Lukas had been saved, by his total mess of a deskmate. 

“That’s correct. _Lukas._ Next time I see you on your phone during class I _will_ confiscate it.” With that, he launched back into another mindless drone - something, something “colonization” - and Lukas let out the breath he had unknowingly been holding in. Everything was okay, he was alive, and the lesson moved on.

Rather than turn back to his phone or the glinting window, his attention was drawn towards his deskmate - his _saviour_ \- who was flashing him the cheesiest grin he’d seen, like ever.

“...Thanks,”

“It’s fine! You can make it up to me by showing me around at lunch,” Hyunwoo playfully winked, “You gotta give me the low-down, like, who’s the jocks, the plastics, and the one cheerleader who’s dating the most popular guy in the school but will leave him for me when we have a real intimate moment before prom.”

Perhaps he was slightly tempted to agree to such an offer, Hyunwoo had already proven to be significantly less annoying than his previous deskmate - but still, he didn’t want the company. Company led to friendships and he was _not_ going to make friends. Friends were complicated, wanting attention, bringing with them only social obligations and utterly stressful drama and Lukas just wasn’t on board with all of that. He’d managed to make it through to his last year of high school without being forced into a close relationship with anyone - why would he change that all now? Acquaintances were all he needed, and all that he wanted.

Besides he was...well, he was scared, in a sense. He didn’t know Hyunwoo, he’d only been aware of the man’s existence for a few minutes. For all he knew, Hyunwoo could be an absolute drama hoe, making friendships as easily as he broke them, leaving behind only tainted embarrassments and _reputations_ tacked to the people he’d known. Lukas didn’t want a reputation, something to be remembered by.

“...No thanks. Go talk to Feliciano, he’d _love_ to show you around.”

At even the mention of his name, the bouncy Italian had already spun around in his seat, with a cheesy grin that easily rivalled Hyunwoo’s and a motormouth that left Lukas to fade away.

* * *

And so life goes on.

His lunchtime reading was spent largely undisturbed. He’d become used to blocking out the petty giggling of students as they peeked at the cloying metaphors spewing from the latest romance novella, fixating on the endless lives of soaring dragons as they heroically battled against even the most ferocious of humans. Dragons had such a bad rap, and he just couldn’t understand why. 

Neither could his other two _acquaintances_.

Arthur Kirkland and Andrei Kogalniceanu - fuck knows how the three of them found each other, but it’d happened somehow and the three of them had been finding themselves sat at the same table in the library every day for the past four years. In comparison to all the other people he’d been forced to socialize with, Lukas had found it slightly less painful to spend time with these two.

“Okay, okay. New idea for a spell, right?” Andrei piped up, laying his own book facedown onto the table.

“What?” Lukas interjected, his own eyes not leaving his book.

“So...you know how there’s fire breathing and shit? _Well_. What if...instead of fire...there was a spell...to make your character do that with lava!? Except because lava is a liquid, I think, it comes out more like a dribbly vomit.”

It was at that point both Lukas and Arthur set their books down, leaning onto the table and simply looking at Andrei - as if to say ‘why the fuck do we spend time with you?’ But, deep down, the two of them both knew that they secretly lived for this kind of shit ( not that either man would ever admit it, of course ). Before Andrei had somehow (?) stumbled across their reading nook, the two of them had spent their lunches in a mutual silence - not that there was anything wrong with that, of course. This was...this was just different, in a good way.

“First off, that’s fucking disgusting but also, how...would that benefit your character...at _all_? Isn’t that just like regular vomit, except it will burn a hole through your chest?” Arthur asked in bewilderment. 

“I dunno, but it would be pretty cool, don’t you think?” He grinned, clapping his hands together.

“I’m sorry but, as DM, I’m not going to allow it,” Arthur shook his head. “I told you! You can come up with spells but they can’t be silly. Otherwise Alfred’s going to be all over it and no one here wants a repeat of the Shrek incident.”

The Shrek incident had been _literally_ been the single-handedly most horrifying incident that occurred during 2013 across the globe. It was Lukas’ fault, really, for inviting Mathias into their D&D group for the night. After months of the man harassing him with small talk _,_ Lukas felt as if he knew him well enough to count him as an acquaintance. Like a fool, _like a damned fool_ , he’d invited him along. 

Needless to say, Alfred and Mathias became best friends within the hour and Mathias was never invited to play D&D with them again.

“Oh fuck, I forgot about that. I take it all back. Thank you Arthur, you’ve saved us all,” Andrei gasped, with a faux shudder. “I still have flashbacks to that night...I swear I’m literally traumatized.”

As their conversation faded off into the stagnant air, there was one voice that kept yanking Lukas away from the fantastical universe he was desperately trying to claw himself back into. 

“-ey! Lukas!” 

It was with the deepest of sighs that Lukas looked up from his book, Much to his un-surprise, it was Hyunwoo who’d popped up out of nowhere and slid into the seat next to his, accompanied by a crew of people, of sorts.

There was Feliciano Vargas...or at least, there _was_ Feliciano Vargas, until he quickly bounced away to gush over the poor, unsuspecting Ludwig Beilschmidt who had stowed himself away in the corner of the library, in the hopes that he might be able to do _some_ study this week. Unfortunately for him, the only lessons he’d be able to revise this hour would be ‘excited Italian babble and how to decipher it’.

There was also Alfred, who’d squished his way between Arthur and Andrei, and was simultaneously frustrating one and amusing the other with his explosive, ground-breaking, ideas for his next character. ( “His name is Fuckers McGee and he’s a half-bee half-human fighter and he looks super hot with a six-pack and everything except he has the face of a bee, which is really scary, but everyone in the ‘verse thinks his bee face is hot.” ) Lukas was somehow unsurprised that Alfred had found a friend in Hyunwoo, that man had the ability to find a friend in _anybody._ Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he either found a friend in everybody or he found yet another deadly nemesis.

“Is this your crew’s hangout? Like, y’know, your table,” Hyunwoo asked, seemingly unfazed that one half of his crew had disappeared and the other half was busy bothering some others.

“It’s a table, yes.”

“Cool, cool, cool, cool. Y’know, this school is really small. There’s only like two stories!? And the school days are so short. It’s so... _nice_.” Leaning forward onto the table with a wistful sigh, Hyunwoo flashed Lukas a rather dreamy smile. “Sometimes, at my old school, I wouldn’t get to come home until like, midnight, but here everything’s over by three o’clock - sometimes two.”

The revelation that some students in some countries could be up studying until midnight was one that shocked him. Even with his own extracurriculars, Lukas had never even been out _studying_ past five o’clock. The evening was his own personal time, spent doing only the things he wanted to ( which, funnily enough, did not involve more studying ).

“Why?” Lukas stumbled out, his nerves shuddering with the revelation that this was the first time he’d bothered to continue a conversation with the man.

“What d’you mean, why?”

“Why...why were you always out so late?” He expanded, working to maintain his usual blank expression, hiding the inflections in his voice with a gentle monotone.

“Extracurriculars and all, had to go to hagwon, yadda yadda. I’m just glad I managed to convince my parents to let me come here for my last year,” Hyunwoo shrugged nonchalantly, as if the long hours of schooling hadn’t really been much of a big deal at all. 

But it was a big deal - to Lukas, at least. His previous misconceptions of Hyunwoo had practically been shattered, the man just couldn’t be an absolute imbecile if he’d been through such a rigorous education system. Or, well, he couldn’t be as much of an absolute imbecile as Lukas had initially thought - certainly not more of an idiot than Mathias. Lukas was, to this day, convinced that Mathias had actually been a prepubescent twelve year old who’d somehow managed to get himself stuck into a teenager’s body. There really was no other explanation to be had.

“Sorry for talking about myself all the time, I don’t mean to bore you or anything. Or at least...I think you’re bored. I can’t really tell.” It was apparent that that last part had been nothing more than a taped on rambling, something that Lukas probably wasn’t supposed to hear. But, he had. And he was rather pleased. Perpetual boredom and a resting bitch-face was Lukas’ all-time goal, really. “So what do kind of stuff do you like? Dragons?” Hyunwoo asked, gesturing towards the book in Lukas’ hands.

“...Yes. Stuff like that. Dragons and...fantasy.”

“I never really got into fantasy stuff, but I reckon it looks pretty cool. I might check it out, got any recommendations?”

There were plenty of novels - both short and massively long - Lukas could rattle off at Hyunwoo about. It was, quite possibly, the only topic he was passionate enough about to actually converse with another non-acquaintance about. There were the old classics, like Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, and there were also those who’d found a more recent surge of popularity, like Game of Thrones; but really, Lukas loved them all equally.

He was just about to speak, actually, just about to contribute to their conversation yet again when he was abruptly interrupted by a somewhat distracted Hyunwoo.

“ -Aw, actually I’ll have to catch you later though, yeah? Looks like one of my tour guides is giving Sir. Eyebrows of the Round Table a bit too much trouble.”

And, he wasn’t wrong. 

Alfred had perfected the art of pissing Arthur off, so finely tuned was this skill, that Lukas was in awe of it. Within the two minutes he’d been talking to Hyunwoo, Alfred had managed to flip Arthur’s book, therefore losing his place forever, invaded Arthur’s personal space, and doodle all throughout Arthur’s DMing notebook. Needless to say, Arthur was no longer a happy chappy.

Wisely pulling Alfred away from the disgruntled man, Hyunwoo was off with nothing more than a small wave and smile in Lukas’ direction.

* * *

“What dice am I supposed to roll? Why do I have so many dice!? I don’t _understand.”_

When playing Dungeons and Dragons with Eirikur, one needed an incredible amount of patience. To anyone just walking into this session, it’d be easy to assume that Eirikur was simply inexperienced with the game - perhaps this was his first time, he was simply getting frustrated because he hasn’t ever quite tried something like this before. 

They would be wrong.

Eirikur had been playing for nearly as long as Lukas had been, and he’d created more than his fair share of characters ( although they almost always wound up the same, absolute assholes who went out of their way to fuck with Lukas. Ah, brotherly love ). But there was something about dice that didn’t make sense to Eirikur.

“It’s the D20. Always use the D20 when you are trying to trip Lukas up, yes?” Kiku piped up, his eyes fixated on his sketchbook. 

“ _Thank you_ , Kiku, for helping Eirikur,” Lukas drawled dryly. “Stop trying to mess with Krumkake. I know you’re just mad at me for eating the leftover mackerel.”

“I still can’t fucking believe you called your character _Krumkake_ ,” Eirikur huffed before tossing his die sloppily across the table, managing to knock over a few figures in the process.

Natural One.

“Nope, I’m out. I’ll see you guys next week.”

Pulling away from the table, Eirikur hastily retreated into his bedroom, his pockets filled with something that looked suspiciously like Lukas’ licorice. 

None of the table members were particularly phased by the abrupt ending of their session, it’d become rather commonplace - in fact, they’d even begun planning their sessions around it. In Lukas’ eyes, it was a small price to pay, to spend even just a few moments with his younger brother. As for the others, they weren’t about to complain, lest they lose their four hour lounge takeover. Not everybody had parents who were welcoming and accommodating to their children’s acquaintances ( possibly because they were relieved that the two brothers had found any “acquaintances” at all ).

“ _Well_. I suppose we’ll pick up from this spot next week, then. He actually chose a great place to storm out this time. Your minds are going to be b l o w n next session,” Arthur remarked, slamming his DM notebook shut. 

“Awh, fuck, really? Can’t we just keep goin’? I wanna know what happens!” Alfred whined as he dramatically threw himself back in his chair, slouching as he rubbed his clearly exhausted eyes. “Andrei n’ I just got some real kick-ass loot too.”

“I’d _love_ to keep playing but I’ve gotta go. I forgot to pick my little brother up from work like, an hour ago.” Andrei shrugged, standing up with a slightly sheepish grin. “I don’t think I’ll be able to bribe my way out of this one with him.”

“Andrei, no! Don’t leave me! Oh _gods_ , the betrayal is real,” Alfred gasped, his hand fluttering above his heart as he gazed up at Andrei with faux shock. 

Patting Alfred’s hand with an exaggerated expression of concern, Andrei simpered sympathetically, “Don’t worry, dearest. There’s always next time. But...until then...I must bid you... _adieu!_ ”

Standing together at the door, their hands raised with a slight wave - as if they were saying goodbye to their rag-tag group of nerds for the last time, Arthur was the last to speak. “Well, I suppose we’re off now. Lukas, could you please thank your Mother for tea, for me? I’m off.”

“Ar _thur._ And _rei._ Don’t _go._ I wanna keep playing,” Alfred continued complaining as he slowly slipped from his chair, spilling onto the carpeted floor, while his pleas fell on the deaf ears of a shut door. 

Having the session end so quickly was a bit of a relief for Lukas, there was only so much social interaction he could handle in one day - and he was very quickly nearing the tip of his limit. Simply attending school each weekday took quite a bit out of him, his painted mask dripping from his face as each second slipped by. He needed the few hours of solitude at the end of each day to touch up his expression, concealing his splotched emotions with a light blend of cynicism.

Ah, but still. Lukas couldn’t deny that he enjoyed spending time with his acquaintances, there was simply something that drew him to each and every one of them. If he had to decide between spending eternity alone, or with these few - he would be _tempted_ to choose them - which was the highest compliment one could draw from Lukas.

The reason why he would be so hesitant to select their company was because _Lukas had no idea how to entertain his guests._ It was easy enough during their campaigns, Arthur easily slid into the leadership role, making his decisions with a clear confidence that Lukas could only dream of shadowing. But as soon as the Englishman left - it was all _chaos_.

“Alfred. My mother will pick us up in a half hour,” Kiku piped up, his clear cut voice easily slicing through Alfred’s drawn-out grumble. “Perhaps we could...play a game until she arrives? Mario Kart? If Lukas is okay with that.”

Perhaps Lukas had exaggerated just a tad. Their “squad” without Arthur was pure, unadulterated chaos - until Kiku intervened. Someone who seemed to have his head screwed on correctly, Lukas had initially been rather surprised that Kiku had become such close friends with someone like Alfred. Sparkling spontaneity meets tranquil entrepreneurship in the form of those two. Sometimes even Lukas yearned for a close friendship when he watched the two of them - emphasis on _sometimes_

“Yes. On one condition - Alfred is _not_ allowed to make Mario or Mario related puns,” Lukas ceded, with a slightly dirty look thrown in Alfred’s direction.

“Whaaaaaa-okay fine,” Alfred drawled, a cheeky grin ever-present on his face. “My puns are too WAHnderful for you guys anyway.”

Despite owning various video game consoles, neither Lukas nor Eirikur had entirely figured out how to use them. The two of them were like two technophobe peas in a pod, their lives practically revolving around anything **but** technology.

Lukas had never quite seen the need for all these technological advancements - he’d vastly preferred his brick-like nokia phone to the flimsy iPhone his Mother insisted he own. His nokia had been perfectly adequate, it did not run the risk of shattering lest he drop it mere centimeters off of the ground, and, more importantly, it was unwaveringly simple to use. His current cellphone left him perplexed, his technology woes practically leaving Arthur and Andrei half-bald with frustration.

Which was why he sat back as Kiku fiddled with the game machines, plugging all sorts of wires in all sorts of plugs, and doing something that involved flashing buttons. Were it not for their parents or ‘acquaintances’, both Lukas and Eirikur would likely be horribly lost in this modern era.

The controller he held in his hands was, probably, always going to feel foreign to him, no matter how many times his ‘acquaintances’ insisted on playing Mario Kart. All the controls confused him, often leaving him in last place as the others’ lapped him time after time, the only thing preventing him from rage-quitting was his discomfort with socialization that didn’t directly involve a task at hand. 

“What’s new in school, lil’ Luke?” Alfred asked, breaking what was an awkward silence on Lukas’ end with that one nickname that Lukas absolutely **hated**. “Oh yo, you’re in history with that new kid, right? What’s his name...Hwong...fu…? Showed him around school today, he’s pretty cool.”

Ah yes, the not-so elusive new kid who kept popping up randomly throughout the day. He’d scarcely known him for a day and yet Lukas was already over him. People who kept asking questions, people who were always interested - and, more importantly, people who _talked_ to him - were people that Lukas did not like. The very nature of socialization bewildered him, leaving him blustered and confused.

Struggling to come up with a response, Lukas settled for a slight shrug, his face showing nothing but disinterest as he slid further and further down onto the couch. If only he could be swallowed whole by the leather, disappearing from this world with the tiniest blimp.

“It’s been _ages_ since we’ve had a new kid. Not since Mathias, I think, and that was years and years and years ago,” Alfred continued. “He was pretty fun. Huwun-hoo has some big boots to fill. I miss my memein’ brother.”

Mathias was, for all accounts and purposes, the only person ( other than Matthew, but he didn’t count - the poor man was _related_ to Alfred ) who could understand Alfred, who was on pretty much the same moronic wavelength. The two of them could talk for hours about the most random topics, something something frogs something something bees, which left Lukas, Andrei, Kiku and Arthur to finally continue on with the campaign without being side-tracked by every little thing along the way. Mathias’ presence was...refreshing, in a way. Or at least, it was refreshing when he’d found someone other than Lukas to distract himself with. 

In class, Mathias was little more than an annoying, excuse the cliche, thorn in Lukas’ side. Every thirty seconds he had a new idea to share, several nudges thrown Lukas’ way, and more than a few warnings from the teacher to “for the love of-...be _quiet_ ,” tossed both of their ways. Class life with Mathias had been hectic, stressful, and contained far more human interaction than Lukas ever could of wanted.

Hopefully, _hopefully,_ Hyunwoo would be different.

“I-” Lukas began, quickly cut-off by a controller being handed his way. The time for talking was over, the time for mindlessly playing video games was here.

* * *

Yet another day in the machine and Lukas couldn’t possibly be any more bored. History wasn’t supposed to be a boring subject, it was supposed to be fascinating - tales of an older time woven with facts and little anecdotes - but apparently here it was different. History was nothing more than a driveling drawl here, sludgy stories smattered across the blackboard, dates being forcibly memorized as Lukas did his very best not to fall asleep right there.

Hyunwoo, on the other hand, had yet to break.

It was almost interesting, the way that he managed to maintain such an intrigued posture, practically leaning forward in his seat with engrossment. He stood out in a stark contrast to the exhausted and disheveled teens around him, all of them looking as if they wanted to be anywhere but here. 

Lukas could not relate to Hyunwoo at all. There was nothing interesting being taught in their current class, just the usual drivel running from his mouth occasionally pausing to bring up their biggest oncoming assignment. 

“...It’ll be worth six credits, so make sure that you work hard on this one. You will be researching the First World War in pairs, working together to craft your responses to the essay questions.”

Almost as soon as the word “pairs” left the teacher’s mouth, the class quickly separated into their duos of choice. Naturally, Lukas was not one of the lucky few who were grabbed - he didn’t exactly have any close friends. But it was no matter, he was pretty used to shit like this by now.

He didn’t even need to turn around to see who the other unfortunate un-partnered person was. 

Awkwardly shuffling his desk closer towards Lukas, Hyunwoo gave him a meek little grin accompanied by a slightly sheepish wave.

“Guess we’re working together on this thing, huh? I’m looking forward to it!”

Without even bothering to respond, Lukas did nothing but raise one of his eyebrows slightly, sitting motionless as Hyunwoo scraped their desks closer together.

“Okay, so this doesn’t seem that hard. This is why we’ve got google!” Hyunwoo exclaimed, briefly scanning over the assignment sheet.

“I’ll do it. I work better alone,” Lukas mumbled as he monotonously tapped his finger against his desk. 

Lukas did not like working in pairs, he did not _want_ to work in pairs - and so he simply would not work in a pair. He’d take the assignment home and pour over the content for hours, crafting both their responses alone. He’d work in relative silence, nothing but the rhythmic tapping of his keyboard ringing through his quiet bedroom. Silence and solitude were his best motivators, working in a pair was nothing but exhausting. What is the use of mindless blather when one can simply put their head down and drown out the world around them by diving into the tepid waters of tedious academia?

“What? No, we should do it together! It’ll be way more fun that way-” Hyunwoo insisted with a slight nod of his head.

“-No, really. I’d prefer to do it by myse-”

“-Maybe we could go study in a cafe over coffee? I know I’m gonna need a caffeine fix to get through this.”

Almost instantaneously, Hyunwoo had managed to capture Lukas’ undivided attention with but a single sentence. 

Coffee.

Coffee had, and probably always would be, one of the few comforts in life that Lukas found himself craving almost constantly. There was just something about the puffing steam bursting from roasted mug that had him practically drooling like sugary-sweet puppy desperately grasping onto a crumbling treat. Lukas would do almost anything for coffee - emphasis on _almost_ \- and spending a brief amount of time with Hyunwoo, provided he could hide behind a laptop, was within that realm of possibility.

“I don’t really know that many cafes...oh shit, wait, there’s this one that’s usually real quiet we could go to, my shout of course, ” Hyunwoo mused allowed, his words trailing off into the air.

“Okay."

“Wait wha-okay, okay, yeah. Tomorrow after school? Meet me on the basketball courts?” Hyunwoo stumbled, having previously been certain that his offer would’ve been harshly rejected.

“Yes,” Lukas nodded, turning his head quickly as if to signal the end of the conversation. As painful as it would be to endure an entire outing with Hyunwoo, the certainty of _free_ coffee was worth it - however that did not mean that he wished to extend the current conversation much longer than he had to. 

“Okay, okay. Cool, cool, cool. I look forward to it, dude.”

Without so much as an audible acknowledgement, Lukas gave Hyunwoo a simple thumbs up before returning to his regularly scheduled procrastination.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, yo!
> 
> If you wanted an actual explanation as for where this completely random ship came about, I had an RP thread way back when where there was just some _crazy_ chemistry between my Norway and my friend's South Korea and they ended up getting together. I thought I'd write this because hey, it would be nice to have a cliche romance be about this totally random couple.
> 
> Constructive criticism is much appreciated! This is my first multi-chapter work, so I am both excited and nervous.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
>  **Human Names**
> 
> All names are the same as canonically stated by Himaruya - with a few exceptions.  
>    
> APH Cuba ; Carlos Machado  
> APH Liechtenstein ; Lili Vogel-Zwingli  
> APH Bulgaria ; Boris Bookamooka  
>   
>  **Key Words**
> 
> As new important terms appear in the story, they will be added to this list. 
> 
> First Chair ; The best player in the section. They sit up the very front of their section and often get given first refusal on any solo/duet/whatever that is written for their instrument. The first violinist is the leader of the orchestra and is used as a basis for tuning if there is no oboist.  
> Second Chair ; This is the second best player in the section. They sit beside the first chair at the front. They have second refusal on any solo/duet/whatever that is written for their instrument.  
>   
>  **Contact Names**
> 
> (Most of these are Alfred’s fault, Lukas doesn’t know how to change his contact names)  
> Alfred: The Dankest Meme Machine  
> Andrei: Team Edward  
> Arthur: bad at cooking  
> Eirikur: Lillebror (for some reason, Alfred didn't mess with Eirikur's contact name).  
> Kiku: Tentacles-Sama

The next day had passed by with scarcely a thing of note occurring. Sure, Alfred had “accidentally” thrown all of his homework through a paper shredder but really, nothing of importance was lost there.

As the clock ticked closer and closer to 3PM, Lukas’ nerves felt as if they were going haywire. He was kicking himself for agreeing to get coffee with Hyunwoo after class. Sure, he loved coffee and he loved getting things for free, but he hadn’t really thought things through at all. Hyunwoo was the sort of person who’d want to... _get to know other people_ and that realization filled Lukas with dread. He’d gone so long without making friends and he didn’t want to lose that streak now.

However, not even crushing dread could stop time’s arrow from moving forward and 3PM arrived with the rapid shoving of textbooks into backpacks as students rushed out the door as quickly as possible. Lukas lingered, for once he was in no particular hurry to escape; moving each limb in slow-motion as if being late would stop this outing from happening at all.

Despite his efforts, Lukas only managed to delay his arrival by about three minutes. Hyunwoo was already out on the basketball court, scrolling aimlessly through his cellphone to pass the time.

A normal person might’ve waved, shouted; or really make any effort to make their presence known, but Lukas was no normal person. No, instead Lukas opted for the _definitely_ reasonable option of stand-directly-next-to-Hyunwoo-and-make-absolutely-no-sounds.

Approximately thirty-two seconds later, Hyunwoo noticed Lukas’ presence and nearly jumped out of his skin. “Lukas!” He exclaimed, “How long have you been here?”

Lukas shrugged. 

“...Oh, well. Shall we be off? Mr. Väinämöinen really busted my balls in basketball practice at lunch today, I could really use some caffeine right about now,” Hyunwoo asked. “I think it’s this way, shouldn’t be too far.”

Slipping his phone into his pocket, Hyunwoo began walking vaguely in the direction of the cafe and Lukas followed closely after. Lukas didn’t say much, hoping that Hyunwoo would take a hint and fill the air with random words and interesting stories; luckily for him, Hyunwoo was _great_ at talking.

“Man, basketball practice was crazy hard this afternoon. I thought I was gonna _die_ ,” Hyunwoo claimed dramatically, throwing his arms up in the air. “I dunno if Mr. Väinämöinen and Mr. Oxenstierna had a fight or something but something was up today.”

Lukas nodded.

“Like, he kept making us stop in the middle of practice and do laps around the court for ten minutes. He was _so_ mad, I wouldn't have been surprised to see steam coming out of his ears and everything,” Hyunwoo continued his ramble. “When I first saw him I thought he’d be a bit of a push over, he’s so short and unassuming but his temper is _crazy_. Especially considering it was completely unprovoked-” Hyunwoo stopped suddenly. 

His face lit up, looking as if an imaginary light bulb popped up above his head. “Oh! I think I just figured out why he was so angry. I totally forgot but Alfred was doing this thing where he’d just dab whenever someone tried to pass the ball to him,” Hyunwoo recalled. “Can’t believe I forgot about that.”

Lukas nodded.

“And Mr. Väinämöinen kept trying to make him stop it and he did but he just ended up naruto running everywhere instead,” Hyunwoo continued. “He ended up naruto running the laps around the court we had to do too. I think Mr. Väinämöinen wanted to punish him more but he didn’t want to deal with Alfred anymore.”

“Most people don’t want to deal with Alfred,” Lukas spoke, for the first time since meeting up with Hyunwoo. 

As much as he hated to admit it, hearing about Alfred’s antics made Lukas want to laugh. He had a knack for doing stupid, stupid stuff that was so ridiculous it was hilarious. Lukas suspected that this was the reason why Arthur hadn’t just about killed Alfred yet.

“You’re right about that,” Hyunwoo laughed. “I love that about him, though. Never a dull moment when Alfred’s around, he’s good at keeping things interesting.”

“So what’ve you been up to, Lukas? You have any club stuff on this week?” Hyunwoo asked, trying to squeeze more conversation out of the endlessly stubborn Lukas.

“...No, not really,” Lukas answered after a few beats of silence.

“Are you in any clubs? You’re in the orchestra, right?” Hyunwoo continued to probe. “I’ve just auditioned for a spot in the trumpet section. Alfred talked me into it. He said he thought I was a good player but I think he was just getting lonely as the only trumpet player.”

Was there no escaping the anxiety-inducing hurricane that was Hyunwoo? Was Lukas doomed to be followed by Hyunwoo everywhere he went? Because that’s what things were starting to feel like and Lukas was starting to dread his new school life with Mathias 2.0. Or, well, perhaps dread was too harsh. Lukas’ feelings towards Hyunwoo were more akin to slight terror, oodles and oodles of anxiety, and a teeny tiny bit of him that couldn’t help but notice how hot he was - but let’s just repress that part.

“Yes and yes,” Lukas spoke succinctly, looking at the ground and slipping his hands into his coat pockets.

“I was really nervous about joining the orchestra but if Alfred’s there and you’re there, I’m kinda excited,” Hyunwoo admitted. “I kinda can’t wait to hear everyone play...plus I can’t wait to see what everyone’s instruments are! I heard that there’s a cor anglais player? Isn’t that awesome! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cor anglais before.”

Lukas nodded. 

“Anyway, I’m sure that you’re an amazing player,” Hyunwoo added. “Alfred was telling me about how you’re second chair violin after Kiku. That’s pretty awesome. You get to play a bunch of the solos and stuff, right?”

It should come as no surprise that Lukas **abhorred** solos. This is the man who was freaking out about having to go to a cafe with a classmate, he was in no way confident enough to handle solos. Yet as second chair violin, he had solos and duets dumped on him with annoying regularity. Kiku was gracious enough to play the majority of the solos but not even Kiku could save Lukas when it came to duet parts.

If you asked Lukas how he did it, how he managed to get through concert after concert with solos and duets, he wouldn’t be able to give you a straight answer because really, he wasn’t quite so sure himself. If he answered at all, he’d tell you about how his knees knock together about twenty bars before the solo, how his forehead and palms grow sweaty about ten bars before the solo, and how he mostly disassociated like all hell when it actually came time to play the solo.

But instead of saying all of that, instead of pouring out the endless waves of hatred that he held for solos, duets, and all things of that sort; instead of saying anything, Lukas just nodded again.

In his pocket, his phone buzzed and Lukas was just about to ignore it as he usually did, when Hyunwoo spoke up, “Check your phone if you want, I don’t mind.”

Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he saw a screen filled with missed texts that he did not particularly want to look through but would do so anyway.

_Group: Dungeons & Bad Dragon _

_The Dankest Meme Machine: we doing game tonite???_

_The Dankest Meme Machine: i wanna playyyyyyyyyy :(((((_

_Lillebror: idk_

_bad at cooking: Well, that’s a shame. I’ve just finished planning the next session. Are people free tonight?_

_The Dankest Meme Machine: YEET_

_The Dankest Meme Machine: IM HERE WIT ANDRE N KIKZ N THEY SAYS YEET 2_

_Lillebror: yes but not too late ive got a very important tv show to watch_

_bad at cooking: What about you, Lukas?_

Lukas sighed, he could probably do tonight but...he was already spending his afternoon with Hyunwoo. There was a 99% chance that he would not want to have any more human interaction afterwards. He only had so much energy. 

_Me: cant got plans_

It only took a few seconds for the replies to start coming in.

_Lillebror: lol what_

_The Dankest Meme Machine: U GOT PLANS???!_

_The Dankest Meme Machine: srry didnt realize caps was on_

_The Dankest Meme Machine: but u got plans?? who with??? u never have planss_

He frowned at his phone. Alfred always asked questions, truly his worst quality.

_Me: doing group work for history_

_The Dankest Meme Machine: who with thoooo whos ur partnerrr_

_bad at cooking: Andrei and I are about to start our research on Thursday Evening. Do let me know if you_

_find any particularly good sources, I’ll send you any particularly good ones I find too._

_bad at cooking: I believe his partner is Hyunwoo, the new person._

_The Dankest Meme Machine: yaaaaa i love hyu hoo hes my boyyyyy_

_The Dankest Meme Machine: tell him i say hiiiii_

Lukas sent Alfred a thumbs-up with absolutely zero intention to follow through with anything.

_Me: will do arthur_

_Me: can do tomorrow_

_Lillebror: same_

_The Dankest Meme Machine: GOOD WITH ME_

_The Dankest Meme machine: fcuk kekz just reminded me got a DUM leadership meeting after schol so_

_have to b after tht_

_bad at cooking: Hey! I called that meeting >:( It’s not dumb. _

_The Dankest Meme Machine: dum_

_bad at cooking: Well, I will also be free after this very important meeting. Hopefully it won’t take too long,_

_although I have heard that the Head Boy is a bit of a dunce so it might take a while..._

_The Dankest Meme Machine: hey!!!!!! U take that bak u limey bastrd >>>>:U _

Turning his phone off and putting it back in his pocket, Lukas apologized, “Sorry...group chat.”

“Everything alright?” Hyunwoo asked.

Lukas nodded, not really caring to elaborate. 

“Looks like we’re nearly there anyway,” Hyunwoo pointed out, gesturing towards a short white building in the near distance.

Lukas squinted and was just able to make out the monochromatic signage that declared that the building was called ‘Mont Blanc’ in tall, thin letters just below the roof. Black canopies jutted out over opened windows overshadowing the small window boxes filled with flowers that shook in the light breeze. The intoxicating smell of freshly roasted coffee beans wafted out of the open windows and drifted down the street, grabbing Lukas’ attention and making his mouth near begin watering in anticipation.

“I’ve never actually been here before, I heard about it from a girl in the photography club,” Hyunwoo admitted. “She’s...I want to say...Lili? Anyway, her brother owns the place. Apparently he hires a bunch of students too, if you’re looking for a job.”

“I know,” Lukas replied. He paused for a few seconds before adding, “Boris works here too.”

Lukas didn’t actually know Boris that well, no one really did other than Andrei. The two of them had been inseparable as children, going around wreaking as much havoc as two lower-middle class children were able to do in a small town. Mostly all they’d gotten up to was harassing a young Feliciano and playing witchcraft in their backyards, doing their best to convince everyone that their voodoo dolls were definitely real and they _better_ let Andrei and Boris play with them (please).

But that was all in the past now. 

Andrei had asked Boris out sometime in Year 11, a story that Lukas did not know particularly well because he hadn’t befriended Andrei at the time and was generally obtuse regarding the comings and goings of the social aspect of school. They still hung out every and any time that they could, but Boris was holding down three different jobs to save up for university. And working at Mont Blanc was one of those jobs.

Hyunwoo opened the door for Lukas, a tiny bell dinging as he did so. 

The interior of the cafe was similar to the outside in that it was mostly black-and-white, with hints of green thrown about in the form of leafy plants. The walls were dominated by the tall silhouette of a white mountain on a black background, this motif echoed along the skirting as well. The floor was made of some kind of stone, light grey with speckles sporadically splattered across. Greyscale chairs and tables were clumped about on two opposite sides of the room, leaving a clear pathway from the entrance to the counter; which Lili was enthusiastically waving at them from behind.

“Hyunwoo! Lukas!” She called out, her peppy and effervescent smile wide. “I was hoping that you guys would come and check the place out. Carlos is here too!”

As she mentioned him, Carlos popped out from behind a rather tall coffee machine. “Yo!”

Lukas squinted at the pair for a second, unable to recognize either of them. He was never one to actually get to know the people around him - hence the whole ‘acquaintances’ thing - and straight up didn’t recognize either of them, despite being in the same clubs as them (the Gardening club with Lili & the Orchestra with Carlos). Instead, he simply pretended to recognize them; it was much easier than trying to explain otherwise.

“Hey guys, what’s up? God, that coffee smells amazing!” Hyunwoo exclaimed, making a bee-line for the counter as Lukas dawdled along behind him. 

“Thanks! I just managed to convince the boss to order some Cuban Arabica beans the other day,” Carlos replied, “They’re wild good.”

“Seconded. He made some for me this morning and it was delicious,” Lili added. “You guys want some?”

“Yes please,” Hyunwoo answered enthusiastically. “Can I have a flat white? Lukas here will have a…”

“...Espresso,” Lukas finished off.

“Sure thing, guys. Go take a seat somewhere and I’ll bring your coffee round when it’s ready. This one’s on me, alright?” Lili replied with a smile, before adding helpfully that “...Also, the wifi password is on the wall.”

“Really? Thanks, Lili,” Hyunwoo replied. “C’mon Lukas, let’s go sit by the window.”

Quickly snapping a picture of the wifi password, Hyunwoo wandered off to a small square table in the corner of the cafe. Sitting down opposite the window, he began to pull his laptop out of his backpack. Lukas followed not too far behind him and took the seat opposite of Hyunwoo.

Once they’d set their laptops up and connected all their various devices to the internet, they began to scan through the assignment outline for the first time.

“So...we have to gather research on the First World War and its impact on New Zealand? The best place to start is probably Gallipoli, right?” Hyunwoo wondered. “Looks like we’ll be going on a trip to the war museum at some point, so we can probably get most of our primary sources from there.”

Lukas hummed in acknowledgement, nodding slightly.

“I’ll make a google doc that we can put whatever we find, yeah?” Hyunwoo asked. “I’ll add you on Facebook and send you a link.”

“I don’t have a Facebook,” Lukas admitted quietly.

Given that he was absolutely atrocious with technology of all kinds, the social media craze had never quite caught on with Lukas. Arthur and Andrei had tried to get him to make an account, but Lukas refused. Now they had to schedule D&D sessions through group texts, like their ‘Dungeons & Bad Dragon’ group.

“...You don’t have a Facebook!?” Hyunwoo exclaimed incredulously. “Instagram? Snapchat?”

Lukas stared at him blankly.

“...I can’t...ok…” Hyunwoo spoke aloud, trying to process the concept of being social media-less. “What’s your email then?”

“...liquoricerolls@gmail.com,” Lukas said after a long pause, refusing to look up from his computer screen.

“Liquorice rolls? That’s so cute. It’s a very Lukas email,” Hyunwoo grinned. “Okay, cool cool I’ve sent it through.”

Whatever Hyunwoo meant by that comment, Lukas was simultaneously freaking out about it and trying to suppress his reaction desperately. People always called his email ‘cute’ and Lukas hated it. They were completely right, but that didn’t change his feelings. He’d considered making a new email at one point but truthfully just couldn’t be bothered. It’d been his email for so long it’d just be a bother to change things now.

Clicking the link, Lukas found himself on the blank doc ‘war & stuff.’

Without saying much more, the two did their best to begin their research. To Lukas’ surprise, Hyunwoo didn’t try to keep distracting him with random conversation; he said little else other than a cheerful “Thank you!” when Lili came around with their drinks. In fact, Hyunwoo’s contribution to their shared google doc was a whole lot longer than Lukas’.

Peering over the top of his laptop screen, Lukas watched Hyunwoo’s focussed expression, his hands typing far faster than Lukas ever could. Whenever Lukas had ~~gazed dreamily~~ observed Hyunwoo working in class he always had this strange look of actual fascination on his face; almost as if he enjoying learning or something. That expression was still present, but now with a laser-focus and concentration that he hadn’t seen on Hyunwoo before. It was...perplexing.

Shaking his head, Lukas looked back to his screen. It just wouldn’t do to sit here and wax lyrical inside of his own mind all day; he was better than that, or so he hoped he was. Lukas Bondevik did not a) have friends or b) get crushes. Yeah, he slipped up a little on that second part with Mathias but that was beside the point. The point was, that Lukas Bondevik did not and would not fall in love with someone just because they were nice to him and bought him coffee and sitting in silence with him wasn’t bad at all and the way that he looked when he concentrated was _really_ cute-’

He frowned, forcing his mind to become devoid of all thoughts and delved into the wonderful world that was Google.

* * *

Before long their coffees had been drained and they’d found a more than reasonable amount of sources. Lukas stopped typing and sat in amazement. For the first time in a long time, he’d been able to work uninterrupted with another person; even Arthur would say something after a while. And even more curiously, Lukas was actually enjoying himself. Outside. In public. With a person.

“Well....I’d say that’s enough for now, what do you think?” Hyunwoo asked, leaning back and stretching his arms.

Lukas nodded, checking his cup to see if past him had been gracious enough to leave a little bit of coffee for future him (he had not).

“Where d’you live? I’m heading that way myself,” Hyunwoo jerked his thumb to the left. “I’m like half-way down Featherston street.”

“Same street,” Lukas responded.

“Really!? That’s wild,” Hyunwoo said, “Let’s walk home together?”

Lukas opened his mouth to shut him down but stopped. ‘He’d be walking in the same direction anyway, it’d just be annoying to avoid,’ he reasoned with himself, avoiding the sneaking suspicion he had that there were more depth to his feelings than that. Shutting his laptop lid, Lukas slid his stuff into his backpack and stared into the middle distance, trying to clear his mind of thoughts.

Hyunwoo managed to clear his stuff away a bit quicker than Lukas and he wound up taking the mugs up to the counter again; saying one last farewell to Lili and Carlos. Lukas slid his backpack back on, nodding in the general direction of their two schoolmates, and following Hyunwoo out the front door.

“So, how do you know Lili and Carlos?” Hyunwoo asked. “I met them in the clubs. Lili I said before and Carlos in the concert band. They’re not in our year but they’re still chill.”

As usual, Lukas said nothing but this time he must’ve had a somewhat guilty look on his face or something because Hyunwoo could somehow read his expression quite easily.

“...You couldn’t remember who they were, huh?” Hyunwoo realized. “Were you just going along with whatever they said?”

Lukas said nothing. His cheeks went scarlet.

“Your silence speaks volumes,” Hyunwoo laughed. “Don’t worry, I used to do that all the time. I used to be totally rubbish with names. I actually started writing peoples’ names down after meeting them, so I could remember it when I saw them later...my books probably look like they were written by a psycho, who’s really into high schoolers.”

It was good to know that he wasn’t alone in this. That was something that he had trouble remembering; that he wasn’t alone in his experiences. He often went so far out of his way to isolate himself from people that he could scarcely keep a grasp on what was considered ‘normal’ at any given time. It was a major source of anxiety for him, one that was mostly caused by him but y’know, whatever.

“I’ve met so many people since coming here, it’s crazy. Everyone’s just so friendly too,” Hyunwoo spoke up again. “I didn’t think it’d be this easy to make friends, y’know?”

Lukas didn’t know. Lukas didn’t say anything.

“Plus the schooling is way more chill here,” He continued. “I don’t have to spend much time studying at all, it’s the best! I mean, if I was still in Seoul I’d be preparing for Suneung right now. Instead I’m walking home with you. It’s crazy!”

“...what’s Suneung?” Lukas asked.

“It’s the college scholastic ability test or whatever. It tells you if you can go to university, where you go to university, but it can also affect stuff like your job prospects, income, where you live, your future relationships…it’s kinda a big deal,” Hyunwoo rattled off, whilst Lukas could barely keep up. “It’s like an eight hour long marathon of exams that start in November. It’s crazy strict. The teachers that write the test are taken to a secret location in Gangwon and aren’t allowed contact with the outside world for a whole month. They’re not even allowed to take their phones!”

Lukas said nothing, but this time it was more out of shock than anything else. He had thought that Hyunwoo’s old studying schedule had been ludicrous enough, but this just seemed like something out of a dystopian horror movie. Half of him couldn’t comprehend this test as being real, but the other half of him knew that Hyunwoo wasn’t really the type to lie to him.

“That’s...that’s…” Lukas stuttered, the cogs in his mind moving slowly. “..That’s crazy.”

“Yeah,” Hyunwoo nodded. “I’ve heard of people practicing waking up at six am for a week beforehand so that they’d be used to it when the morning came.” He shrugged. “I dunno, I’m just so glad that I don’t have to do it anymore. It’s crazy, there’s so much pressure to do well. I tried to prepare myself for it but I just burnt out, y’know?”

For the second time, Lukas was questioning his impression of Hyunwoo. He was starting to think of Hyunwoo as a lot less of an idiot and more of just a regular person, which was a very new concept to him. Don’t get him wrong, Hyunwoo was still an absolute moron, but there was more depth to him than that. And Lukas was curious.

“But anyway, that’s enough about me,” Hyunwoo piped up again. “I feel like I don’t know enough about you, like...why don’t you talk much?” He paused, before adding. “Shit, I’m sorry. That was kinda rude.”

“It’s fine,” Lukas shrugged. “It’s true.”

“Why d’you do it though? Not that it’s necessarily a Bad Thing,” Hyunwoo rambled, stumbling over his words. “It’s just like...a Thing?”

He didn’t say anything for a while, not quite sure how to phrase his answer. If he were to speak the truth his answer would be something along the lines of ‘deep and meaningful human connections terrify me beyond belief and I don’t like to talk because I don’t want to get close to anyone so that it won’t hurt so bad when the inevitably leave me behind.’ But that wasn’t going to happen.

Instead Lukas said, “...I just don’t like it. That’s all.”

“Fair enough,” Hyunwoo nodded, looking as if he didn’t completely believe Lukas at all. “I just don’t know how you do it. I dunno if you’ve noticed yet but I love talking.”

Then something happened that surprised both of them.

Lukas _laughed_.

It wasn’t particularly loud, if anything it was a rather quiet laugh; just a little snicker, really. It wasn’t as if he was rolling around on the ground cracking up, his sides feeling as if they were splitting as tears trickled from the corners of his eyes. No, he just found the thought that he hadn’t noticed Hyunwoo loved talking slightly funny. He’d been carrying the entire conversation on his shoulders ever since they’d met at the close of school just a couple of hours past.

Upon realizing that he’d made a type one fatal error and allowed another person witness him express an emotion, he looked down at his shoes. He didn’t like laughing in front of people, not even Arthur and Andrei. It made him feel weird, made him think about how his laugh sounded and what if he had an awful laugh? One that sounded like the hacking cough or nails on a chalkboard? Even if he asked the people around him, he was sure that they would lie to protect his feelings if he really did have an awful laugh and oh boy, he hoped that he hadn’t put off Hyunwoo with his horrible laugh and-

Lukas looked up and saw Hyunwoo positively beaming at him, looking as if he’d just won the lottery (not that he could, given that he was underage. Unless it was one of those school-run lotteries but it wasn’t).

“Never heard you laugh before,” Hyunwoo proudly grinned. “Don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile before, now that I think about it.”

Scowling, Lukas crossed his arms and lowered his eyes to the ground once more as his face heated up for the second time today. He was becoming too slack in maintaining his stoicness, he’d let something as vital as a laugh slip through his controls. It just wouldn’t do, he had a reputation to uphold; a fragile sense of self that he’d finally cultivated after years and years of not knowing who he was.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone you laughed at a spectacularly terrible joke of mine that wasn’t really a joke at all,” Hyunwoo continued. “But I can’t promise that I won’t stop trying to make you laugh.”

All things considered, that wasn’t the worst deal in the world. Still not looking Hyunwoo in the eyes, he mumbled out a “...fine,” before falling back into silence.

They stayed in that rather comfortable silence the rest of the walk home, both boys too wrapped up in their own thoughts to think of anything particularly interesting to say (not that Lukas would start a conversation if he ever did think of anything interesting to say). But that suited Lukas just perfectly fine and Hyunwoo didn’t seem to be hating every second of quiet the passed by the two of them either; too busy looking around the alien streets that he hadn’t had the chance to become acquainted with in his brief stay in the country thus far.

They reached Lukas’ house first. It wasn’t anything particularly noteworthy, nor was it an exact carbon copy of the rest of the houses on the street. It was just his home. His home with the cheerfully familiar bright blue door, faded grey curtains that had been drawn apart to reveal the comfortably normal interior if one happened to peer through the windows.

“This is me,” Lukas spoke up as they walked by the short fence that encircled the home.

“Cool cool cool,” Hyunwoo responded. “Wow, you’re really close to me. My house is only a couple minutes ahead.”

Lukas nodded, not quite sure what to do or say. He wasn’t good with goodbyes, he wasn’t good with any part of a conversation really.

“Y’know...I walk past yours on the way to school,” Hyunwoo continued. “And like...do you wanna walk together?” Fidgeting with his hands a bit, he looked to the side. “I’m just still new and...I dunno, I still get a little nervous turning up on my own,” He admitted.

If Hyunwoo hadn't continued with the rest of that sentence, Lukas would’ve had no second thoughts about shutting him down. He also walked to school but as has been stated many times before, he enjoyed his solitude. He liked being able to drown out the world for a couple more minutes, either metal or folk music blasting through his earphones until he couldn’t hear anything except for the songs.

“We wouldn’t have to talk if you didn’t want to, either,” He kept speaking, only stumbling over his words a few times. “I usually just listen to my music and st-”

“Yes, ok,” Lukas agreed, already unlocking the gate and walking into his front yard. “See you at eight thirty.”

“Huh? What-okay, yeah!” Hyunwoo grinned. “See you tomorrow morning!”

* * *

A few hours later, after Lukas had retired from dinner and retreated into his room for the usual Teenage Brooding™, he sat down at his desk and did little more than gaze out the window as the sun set behind the mountains. Although he’d had a while to recover his strength, Lukas was still stuck on the events of that afternoon. He hadn’t had as bad a time as he thought he would; if anything he’d actually enjoyed himself a little (just a little). Yeah, Hyunwoo talked way too much for any normal person, but at least he knew when to shut up and enjoy the scenery every once in a while. It was...nice. Today had been nice.

But the thoughts that he had done something wrong, said something wrong, even looked at something wrong, still whispered in his ears and he screwed his eyes shut and tried to block it all out. Obviously he hadn’t fucked everything up too bad, Hyunwoo had been pretty eager to see him again the next morning- which was its own ordeal.

Lukas was contemplating whether or not he should just leave the house before Hyunwoo arrived when his phone buzzed. Looking down at the screen, the notification read: [ 1 New Email: kimchislut@gmail.com].

Curiosity getting the better of him, he opened the email and a small smile worked its way onto his face.

From: kimchislut@gmail.com 

To: liquoricerolls@gmail.com 

Subject: coffeeeeee

Message:

Yo!!!! Js had a lit time today, lookin forward 2 walking together tmmr morning

wanna do hist again same time same place next week??? i didnt technically pay for today so i still owe u a 

coffee :)

also lolololol have u seen this?? [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1Gs8WTddI4 ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1Gs8WTddI4) kiku told me u play a wizard in ur dnd campaign.

Clicking the link, Hyunwoo would be proud to know that he managed to work out much more than just a single measly snicker out of Lukas today. It didn’t take long for Lukas to watch the entire series and email Hyunwoo back.

They emailed back and forth all night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hihi, back with another chapter!
> 
> Thanks to Rainy for being my beta! You can check her out here [[viihmane.tumblr.com](https://viihmane.tumblr.com/)]
> 
> Sorry for the delay, I got a bit carried away with world building for a couple weeks there. Let's just say that there may be a lot of cameos (and if I can ever be bothered, other fics based in this 'verse). I'll probably be updating this monthly, although if university calms down then I might be able to get these out a tad faster.
> 
> Also! This fic is based in New Zealand, probably in some stupidly boring town like Palmerston North or Levin. This is mostly because I am from New Zealand and it's the only education system I know lolol.
> 
> As always, please let me know what you thought of the fic; any constructive criticism is wild welcome yo :)


	3. Intermission 01 - Art Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!
> 
> Apologies for not posting sooner.Unfortunately there were some deaths in my close family/friends circle that have prevented me from updating around the time that I normally would. 
> 
> I will definitely still be continuing with this fic, I find it too fun not to, so please expect the next chapter to come up in a couple of weeks! In the meantime, here are some pictures of that I drew a little while ago that I didn't have the chance to upload :)

**Year 13's**

[ _Top Row:_ Hyunwoo Im (South Korea), Lukas Bondevik (Norway), Boris Bookamooka (Bulgaria), Andrei Kogălniceanu (Romania), Feliciano Vargas (North Italy)

_Bottom Row_ _:_ Kiku Honda (Japan), Alfred F. Jones (America), Francis Bonnefoy (France), Arthur Kirkland (England), Laura van de Berg (Belgium) ]

* * *

**Year 12's**

[ _Top Row:_ Matthew Williams (Canada), Carlos Machado (Cuba)

_Second Row:_ Wang Xiao Li / Leon Wang (Hong Kong), Lin Xiao Mei / Mei Lin (Taiwan), Ludwig Beilschmidt (Germany)

_Third Row:_ Feliks Łukasiewicz (Poland), Toris Laurinaitis (Lithuania), Natalya Arlovskaya (Belarus)

_Bottom Row:_ Veronique Payet (Seychelles), Jiemba / Jett Goolagong (Australia), Tāne Mahuta Ngata (New Zealand) ]


	4. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Human Names**
> 
> All names are the same as canonically stated by Himaruya - with a few exceptions.
> 
> APH Hong Kong ; Leon Wang ( Wang Xiao Li )  
> APH Taiwan ; Lin Xiao Mei

The walk to school had been mostly uneventful. Lukas woke at six thirty in a cold sweat, nervous about the whole ordeal. Then it turned out that he didn’t need to stress at all; Hyunwoo had meant it when he said they didn’t have to talk. They spent their walk to school in a mutual silence, each boy listening to music through earphones, stopping sometimes to talk when it came to them naturally. It was... _nice_. 

He’d not minded so much that when Hyunwoo turned up at his door again the next morning, he’d already been waiting by the window in anticipation. It didn’t take long for their walks to and from school to become a regular occurrence. Lukas would rush about and make sure he was ready ten minutes before Hyunwoo arrived, then he’d wait anxiously by the window, and as soon as Hyunwoo popped into view, Lukas was out the front door feeling much happier than he liked to admit.

* * *

It was a Wednesday morning tea time when Lukas found his way to the usual spot in the library, nodding at Arthur and Andrei as he took his seat.

Andrei was leaning back in his chair (far enough that Lukas was sure that he’d fall and hurt himself eventually), skimming through a couple of mythology books. Arthur was focused on his notebook, scribbling something that was sure to come up later tonight in the margins. Lukas and Andrei tried to sneak a peek but Arthur caught on pretty quickly, throwing his arm around the book to block his view.

“No peeking! This is going to come up next session,” Arthur said, still writing away. “If you peek then I’ll smite your characters.”

Lukas and Andrei promptly stuck to their own business after that.

Lukas left the table briefly to find a book of his own, but when he returned the trio spent the first five minutes of their break reading through their chosen texts silently (or in Arthur’s case, writing quickly in his book and pausing every so often to glare suspiciously at the two far-too-innocent-acting boys next to him). They got comfortable, falling back into their usual rhythm of silence with the occasional stupid joke from Andrei to keep them from completely falling into their fictional worlds altogether.

A loud bang knocked them out of their comfortable routine, much like many others in the library. It appeared that Alfred had kicked the door to the library open and screamed “WHAT’S UP!?” in their general direction, much to the chagrin of the flustered looking Kiku behind him.

Pretending not to notice him at all, the trio let the poor kid who was on librarian duty deal with the obnoxious mess that was Alfred (this was Raivis’ first shift on the job and he was beginning to regret signing up at all). Kiku slipped past them and approached the table.

“I’m sorry about that...I tried to tell him that it wasn’t a good idea but he said ‘yolo’,” Kiku explained, taking the empty seat next to Arthur and having the decency to not immediately try and read Arthur’s notes over his shoulder.

“It’s okay Kiku, none of us here can blame you,” Arthur consoled him with a light pat on the shoulder. “I don’t think any of us can control that boy.”

Alfred might of been his best friend, but Kiku was in no hurry to defend him. “Thank you,” He responded, bowing his head slightly. “Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about the figures for the council meeting at lunch? I’ve made some updates to the graphics, if you’d like to check them. I’ve had Alfred look at them first, so they should be understandable to everyone.”

“Good, good,” Arthur nodded, closing his notebook and peering at the papers Kiku was pushing in his direction. “These all look perfectly lovely, Kiku. Could you send me the image files? I’ll add them to the agenda document.”

After an unconvincing telling off, Alfred rocked up to the table as if that whole ordeal with the volunteer librarian hadn’t just happened. “What’s up my homey G's? How’s things cracka-lackin’?”

“It’s all swiggity swag bro,” Andrei quipped back, as nobody else tried to open their mouths and respond to their nonsense. “Totally groovy...radical...hang ten?”

“Tagged along with my boy-o here because I’ve got a question for the DM, Arthur?” Alfred continued, throwing some finger-guns Arthur’s way.

Leaning back in his seat, Arthur took his precious time before acknowledging Alfred’s question with a “yes?”

“Hyoowoo wants to try out dnd, he says I’ve been talking about it too much,” Alfred continued quickly. “Can he join? _Please?_ I promise it’ll go better than last time!”

Hearing Hyunwoo’s name, no matter how badly Alfred said it, piqued Lukas’ interest instantaneously. He’d only partly been paying attention to the conversation around him but now they had his full and undivided attention (which he continued to hide behind the shield of his book). Lukas liked spending time with Hyunwoo, that much he knew now, even though it embarrassed him to think about. But inviting him into the sanctuary of their dnd campaign was on a whole other level from going out for coffee and assignments.

Arthur sat silent for a bit, thinking hard about the potential consequences of such things. “...Well, I don’t have too much of a problem with it. But it depends, what do the rest of you think? Majority rules.”

“No!” Lukas blurted out, surprising everyone including himself. “-er, I mean...no…” He trailed off, trying to think of a reason to not invite Hyunwoo other than ‘I think he’s cute and I don’t know if I can handle spending more than two hours with him at a time.’ “...There’ll be too many players then. Five people is already a big party.”

Arthur hummed, nodding. “That is true, Having a sixth person would be quite difficult…”

“But we’ve done it before,” Andrei pointed out. “And Hyunwoo can’t be worse than Mathias.”

“That is also true,” Arthur nodded again. “Kiku? What do you think?”

Lukas held his breath, looking over at Kiku. The boy had a solid head on his shoulders, surely he could see how inviting Hyunwoo into their game would cause all sorts of chaos and side with Lukas. He leaned back in his seat, his nerves dissipating as he reasoned that there was no way that Kiku would say ye-

“It is fine with me,” Kiku responded, betraying Lukas without even knowing it.

“Alright then, looks like the majority have it,” Arthur concluded. “He’s welcome to join the session tonight if he prepares a character first. I’ll just have him turn up at the village or something.”

Inwardly, Lukas cursed and yelled and basically died. Outwardly, he turned the page on his book.

“Radicool, I’m going to go tell him now,” Alfred exclaimed.

“Not if I get to him first!” yelled Andrei, swinging his chair so violently he fell off, pretended like nothing happened, and sprinted out of the door. 

“Shit!” Alfred shouted, racing after him as the student librarian got up to tell him off but just slammed his head onto the desk instead.

“Ah, I will be off too,” Kiku added. “I will see you both later.” He slid the papers back into his backpack and walked to the door at a much more normal pace.

With just two of them left, Arthur and Lukas fell back into the usual silence and sparse conversation that they’d occupied since before Andrei had joined them years ago.

* * *

The cursor on Lukas' screen blinked slowly at him, as if it were judging him for writing so little. He’d only gotten three bars into his composition, struggling to come up with a single melody that caught his interest. He’d listened to it repeatedly over the past twenty minutes, but it did not miraculously change into a better song. Lukas knew his theory well enough, he’d spent more than enough time being spoken at about the use of different techniques and structures - if he had to hear another lecture on the sonata structure he was going to _blow_ \- but none of that had helped him in his futile attempts at being creative.

Sneaking a peek at the screen on his right, Lukas was dismayed to see that Feliciano had already managed to write four pages of music. He’d gone for an eclectic instrumentation; trumpet, flute, euphonium, and double bass. But Lukas was sure it sounded beautiful anyway. Feliciano always had an annoying knack for creating beautiful songs.

Lukas’ music on the other hand wasn’t quite as good. No matter what he did, he always ended up with songs that were more modern than anything else, brimming with dissonance and discord, loud and unyielding. Nothing like the "straight-excellences" Feliciano with his romantic sensibilities. Still, Mr. Braginsky always marked him fairly enough, but Lukas could tell that the teacher derived no joy from his works.

Hyunwoo tapped him on the left shoulder, his own headphones dangling around his neck.

“Psssst,” Hyunwoo whispered, keeping an eye on the teacher sat behind his desk. “Kiku told me about D&D tonight. Can you help me make a character? I don’t know how to do it.”

Looks likes Kiku had made it to Hyunwoo first, even though Alfred and Andrei had been racing to get to him. Lukas had a sneaking suspicion that this was Kiku’s way of getting back at Alfred for being loud and embarrassing in the library.

Not looking up from his screen, Lukas immediately replied with “Arthur can help you. He’s the DM.”

“Kiku said that they’ve got a meeting or something at lunch.” Hyunwoo explained. “And Andrei an’ Alfred have detention right now.”

“Why do they have detention?” Lukas asked. Andrei hadn’t mentioned a detention when they were at morning tea.

“They started a mass email chain to share memes with everyone in their Media Studies class,” Hyunwoo clarified.

That sounded exactly like something Andrei and Alfred would do. But that really did mean there was no one else to help Hyunwoo with his character sheet. The only other member of their party was Eirikur and he wasn’t an option. He really didn’t have much of a choice. ‘Yes,’ he thought to himself, ‘I’m not saying yes because I _want_ to, but because I _have_ to.’

“...Ok. After class,” He agreed, tapping a few keyboard buttons and pretending as if he’d had a new idea for his composition.

“Awesome!” Hyunwoo nodded, popping his headphones back on.

* * *

In the end, Lukas was only able to squeeze out another two bars before succumbing to doodling in his book and tapping random buttons whenever Mr. Braginsky looked his way.

Class finished and most of the students left for lunch, while some of them stuck around to use the computers and some went off to practice their instruments. Taking off his headphones, Hyunwoo saved his work and exited the software, announcing “Alright, I’m ready to start.”

Lukas did the same, glad that he’d managed to get through another class. “Take out your character sheet,” He responded.

“...My what?” Hyunwoo asked, perplexed.

“Your character sheet,” Lukas repeated, slower this time as if the speed at which he’d asked had been the problem.

“I don’t know what that is,” Hyunwoo answered. “Kiku just said that you could help me with everything.”

Lukas sighed, rescinding any previous thoughts he’d had that Kiku was a good, normal boy. “You’re lucky I have some spares,” He replied, leaning down to open his bag.

“Do you just carry those around all the time or…?” Hyunwoo asked.

Pulling them out of their special place in the folds of his English exercise book, Lukas stayed silent for a few moments. “Yes…” He trailed off, not wanting to elaborate but really feeling as if he had to justify his actions. “...Sometimes I get ideas for characters in class.”

“Awh!” Hyunwoo exclaimed. “That’s really cute.”

Lukas did his best to keep his composure, but he was struggling. He tightened his lips, pushing his bag back under the table and holding the character sheet out for Hyunwoo to grab; trying not to notice how warm it’d suddenly become in the classroom. If he’d been embarrassed about Hyunwoo calling his email cute, then he’d just discovered a whole new level of suffering. Lukas had always been the type to wax lyrical in his mind, his inner voice trawling on for lines and lines with more commas than should be allowed, overusing cliche similes and metaphors like he was a Year 9 who’d just discovered anime and was writing their first fanfiction. But this time his brain had shut down. His mind filled with nothing but a whisper of emptiness. Hyunwoo took the paper from his hands.

“So...what first?”

With a question, Lukas blinked away the blankness and focussed on character creation. Dungeons and dragons, now that was something he knew, something safe. “You need to pick a race and class,” He answered. Busying himself with his computer, he pulled up the Player’s Handbook 5E PDF he’d downloaded when Mr. Braginsky hadn’t been looking.

“Oh, I already know my class. I really liked the video that guy I linked you to did on the ranger,” Hyunwoo responded. “I’m kinda stuck on the race though…” He paused for a while, crinkling his nose while he thought. “I know I don’t want to be a human because that’s kind of boring...Oh! I have the best idea,” He exclaimed suddenly. “I’m just gonna make Legolas! Or, um...an edgy Legolas? Negalas...Ashleaf!”

“You could be a drow,” Lukas responded, more amused by the concept than he felt he should be. “But they aren’t the best match for ranger.”

“Hmmm,” Hyunwoo hummed. “Nah, I want him to be good.”

“Wood elf? They have good synergy with the ranger class.”

“Yeah, yeah!” Hyunwoo nodded, filling out the race and class boxes on the sheet. “He’s...he’s from the forest Dankwood.”

“Before we add racial and class bonuses let’s deal with the attributes,” Lukas suggested.

“What’s that?”

Lukas blinked. He’d briefly forgotten that Hyunwoo would have no idea what he was talking about. Lukas didn’t like talking very much on a good day, but it looked like he was about to surpass his week’s word quota in a single lunchtime.

“It’s the things on the left-middle of your character sheet,” Lukas answered. “Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.”

“Oh cool, cool, cool,” Hyunwoo mumbled. “...What’s the difference between Intelligence and Wisdom? Aren’t they the same thing?”

Lukas shook his head. “They’re similar but not the same. Intelligence is...how smart you are and how fast you can learn..Wisdom is more like...your real world and practical smarts.”

“Right!” Hyunwoo nodded. “...This character sheet is a lot more complicated than I thought it would be.”

“...So, Arthur gives us the option between doing point-buy, using the standard array, and rolling,” Lukas continued. “Because you’re a beginner, we’ll use the standard array…” In the corner of the sheet he scribbled ‘15,14,13,12,10,8’ and handed it over to Hyunwoo. “Pick what attributes get which number. The higher the number the better at that attribute Negalas will be.” 

Hyunwoo picked up the pencil, hovering over the sheet while thinking. “...I think...I’m gonna give him a high dexterity, I want him to be sneaky and fast...I dunno about the rest though, what do you think?”

“That’s a good idea. Dexterity should be your primary stat for ranger...Constitution is also a good one to put points into, because that will be your health,” Lukas explained. “Having a high Wisdom would be good too, as a ranger it’ll be your spellcasting ability.”

Hyunwoo nodded, scribbling down a ‘15’ under the Dexterity box, ‘14’ under Wisdom, and ‘13’ under Constitution.

“Intelligence and Charisma would be good dump stats for you,” Lukas continued. “Strength probably doesn’t matter, but I’d rank it higher than Intelligence and Charisma.”

“I think I’ll make Intelligence his worst, I don’t know much about this game so it’s appropriate,” Hyunwoo joked, writing down a ‘12’ in the Strength box, ‘10’ in Charisma, and an ‘8’ in Intelligence. “Negalas is just too dummy thicc.”

“Let’s go through the racial bonuses,” Lukas said, clicking through the PDF until he found the elf section. “Add 2 points to your Dexterity score and 1 point to your Wisdom,” He instructed. “The Dex bonus is from being an elf and the Wis bonus is from being a _wood_ elf.

Hyunwoo nodded, erasing the ‘15’ & ‘14’ with a ‘17’ & ‘15.’

“How old is Negalas?” Lukas asked. “Elves can live to 750 years, becomes an adult at around 100 years, and reaches physical maturity at 18 years.”

“Oh, he’s gotta be teenager for sure, maybe 16 years old?” Hyunwoo answered, filling out the age box. 

“Ok,” Lukas replied, not looking up from the screen. “Your size is Medium, you have a walking speed of 35 feet, and you can speak in Common and Elvish...and you are basically proficient in every weapon and armor other than heavy armor.”

Hyunwoo nodded, writing things down in the appropriate boxes.

“Under the features and traits box write in that you have Darkvision, Keen Senses, Fey Ancestry, Trance, and Mask of the Wild” Lukas rattled off.

“What do those mean?” Hyunwoo asked, struggling to copy everything down so quickly.

“Darkvision means that you can see in the dark. Keen Senses gives you proficiency in Perception,” Lukas answered. “That means you should colour in the little circle next to the word ‘Perception.’ I’ll explain what that means later.” He paused before continuing, “...Fey Ancestry gives you advantage of saving throws against being charmed and means that magic can’t put you to sleep…”

Lukas waited for Hyunwoo to catch up and then explaining the rest, “Trance means that you don’t need to sleep, you can meditate deeply instead and Mask of the Wild gives you the ability to hide even when you are lightly obscured by natural stuff like mist and heavy rain.”

“Wow...that’s a lot,” Hyunwoo whistled, slowly getting to the end of the list with an aching wrist.. “I have a feeling that I’m going to forget almost all of this when it comes time to play.”

“That’s fine, Eirikur forgets his abilities all the time.”

If it weren’t for Kiku’s uncanny ability to remain calm and his delight for explaining things, Eirikur would’ve stopped playing with them years ago. He was loathe to ever actually deal with any of the game mechanics at any time, much preferring to ask Kiku every time he had to do something.

“Eirikur...that’s your younger brother, right?” Hyunwoo asked. “Alfred mentioned him when he was talking about D&D. He’s the one that always rage quits?”

Lukas nodded. That was accurate.

“Anyway, so what’s next?” Hyunwoo said.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later Hyunwoo’s character sheet had most of the mechanical bits filled in and Lukas’ mouth was starting to get dry. He was surprised with how much he’d managed to speak, although the main reason for that was purely because Hyunwoo knew exactly nothing about D&D and Lukas had to explain literally everything. Lukas took a swig from his water bottle, relishing the refreshing feeling.

“We’ve finished the mechanics,” Lukas stated as he closed the lid to his water bottle. “Now you just have to think about the character himself...what does he look like, what is his family like?”

“Hmm...um…” Hyunwoo leaned forward onto the desk, resting one elbow on top and propping his head up with his hand as he thought. “I...I want him to look like Legolas but just super edgy and stuff...like, he’s got the big scene black hair that’s been teased to shit.” 

As Hyunwoo began to describe his character, Lukas started to absentmindedly doodle Negalas in his exercise book; he wanted to see what this guy would look like.

“He _always_ has thick black eyeliner on, of course,” Hyunwoo continued.. “...His eyes are...they’re like the Naruto eyes, you know? The red ones.”

Lukas did not watch anime but even he knew what Naruto was. Alfred and Kiku had gone through a Naruto phase in Year 8. Much to the annoyance of the teachers, they’d Naruto-run everywhere, practicing jutsus in the corner of the classroom, and doing their best to emulate the hairstyles of their favourite characters (Kiku has burned all evidence of his Sasuke-esque haircut, but he could not burn the memories).

“Oh my god...can I give him a katana? I want him to be the biggest weeb™ ever, fuck...but he’s really pretentious about it too.”

“I don’t think katanas are in the game…” Lukas trailed off, thinking. “...but Arthur might let you do it anyway.” Arthur was surprisingly relaxed when it came to homebrew items. He actually quite liked it when his players were creative, so long as it wasn’t totally useless or ridiculous like Andrei’s lava dribble.

“Wicked,” Hyunwoo grinned. “Oh he totally wears platform shoes too. Big massive black ones...He’s got all those classic emo-y scene-y components...like, the striped shirt, loose black tie, patterned suspenders...everything in black, white, and neon green.” 

“What is his backstory?” Lukas probed, still doodling. “Remember you gave him the Outlander background.”

Hyunwoo hummed, deep in thought. “So...his family is from the forest of Dankwood,” Hyunwoo began. “They’re probably deep in the forest, far away from anyone else...But they’re like...there’s a bunch of families living in Dankwood but the Ashleafs are the leader. Negalas is like, the Crown Prince basically.”

“Ok...what’s his motivation for leaving to join the party?”

“Dang, you ask some tough questions,” Hyunwoo responded. “Hmm...he was probably just sick of his parents’ rules. Maybe he’d been grounded for staying out too late with the boy next door and breaking curfew. So he did the logical thing and ran away to do his own thing.”

“Makes sense.”

“Hey, is that Negalas?” Hyunwoo asked, pointing [at the drawing](https://maslyanitsa-yumcha.tumblr.com/post/189655546239/lukas-music-textbook-and-drawing-of-hyunwoos-dnd) Lukas had been working on. “That’s so cool, dude. His hair is perfectly teased and I love the half-up half-down collar.”

Fiddling with the pencil in his hand, Lukas struggled to come up with anything to say. If normal socializing was difficult for him, then dealing with complements was impossible.

“Shit...I didn’t realize how long we’d spent in here,” Hyunwoo piped back up again, looking at the time on his watch with a grim expression. “We’ve got about one minute to get to the other side of school for History.”

Eyes widening, Lukas couldn’t help the terrified expression that cracked through his composure; the flustered feelings about compliments long forgotten. “...Fuck.”

* * *

They got to class about half a minute late, red-faced and puffing as they burst through the door. Despite all their worries, the teacher hadn’t even arrived yet and there’d been no need to rush at all. Making their way closer towards the back of the class, both boys sat down in their desks, concentrating on slowing their exhausted breaths.

The teacher came in at the same time as Arthur did, both pulling the school computer carts in with them.

Excited murmuring spread-out amongst the class, as it usually did when the computers were brought in. Working on computers made History work much easier, significantly decreasing the number of painful wrist cramps in the class, but it also had dangerous consequences; kids playing addicting .io games with their desk neighbours, facebook tabs open on every laptop, and people like Alfred and Andrei distracting entire classrooms with weird meme email chains.

“Alright class, settle down,” the teacher shushed them. “We will be using the computers for the next couple of weeks to work on the group assignment. I’ll be coming around the classroom to look at the work you’ve done so far and give you some feedback.” He cleared his throat, continuing, “Everyone in the front row can come up now to collect a laptop.”

Being at the back of the classroom, Lukas and Hyunwoo were among the last to collect their laptops but that changed very little in the big scheme of things. Having done much of their work when they’d previously met, neither boy was really thinking of spending their class time to further their progress. 

When Lukas finally had his computer in front of him, the first thing he did was pull up their google doc. Then he opened his school email and was pleased to see that someone had already sent out a link to an agar.io server to the entire class. Lukas is not and has never been much of a video gamer of any kind but even he joined in on the fun sometimes. He was terrible at the game and was brilliant at feeding his classmates, but it was an effective way to kill time in a boring class.

He followed the link and signed in as ‘SMØR,’ beginning the game only to be immediately annihilated by someone called ‘fry_chikin.’ This experience pretty much repeated itself for the next half an hour, with Lukas falling short of the leaderboard every time. In fact, Lukas was pretty consistently stuck at around 23rd...out of 23 players.

Leaderboard

1\. fry_chikin

2\. ❄ ❅ ❆ L A U R E N ❄ ❅ ❆

3\. ♛

4\. An Unnamed Cell

5\. slavsquat69

6\. M

7\. fush&chups

8\. 。°。°。(*´￫ܫ￩｀*)。°。°

9\. BREXIT

10\. OuiOuiEiffelTower

23\. SMØR

He was just about to be absorbed by ‘slavsquat69’ when he noticed that he had exactly two seconds to close the tab as the teacher approached. With the Google Doc filling his screen, Lukas was beginning to feel quite nervous about the work that they had done; had it been enough? They’d only had the one get together and neither boy was studious enough to have added extra information of their own volition. 

“Lukas, Hyunwoo,” the teacher stated as he approached. “Can you walk me through what you have been working on?”

To Lukas’ relief, Hyunwoo took the lead on this one and piped up immediately, “Well, what we’ve done so far is pretty much just research gathering online. We’ve just gone through and copied the most relevant information into the document for future analysis.”

The teacher nodded, taking Hyunwoo’s laptop and scrolling through what the duo had done. “Have you decided on a historical event to focus on? Remember it has to be related to New Zealand, so your options are limited.”

Hyunwoo shook his head. “Not yet, we’re still tossing up whether to go with Gallipoli or something else like the Somme.” Lukas didn’t remember having any sort of discussion on their historical event but he thought it wise to do what he does best; not say anything.

“Well, make sure you decide soon. You’ll want to know your topic well before the class trip to National Army Museum, as you will only have the one day to gather your primary sources,” their teacher advised. 

“Of course! We’ll make sure to decide soon,” Hyunwoo grinned.

“Alright, well then boys, you’ve done some great work. Just narrow down your focus and you’re on track,” the teacher nodded, before moving on to the next pair. 

Lukas let out a breathe that he didn’t realize he’d been holding and his shoulders visibly relaxed. It was rare that he’d get something other than praise for his work but it still made him unbearably anxious to receive any sort of critique, and he was just glad that it was over (for now).

Turning his computer back around, Hyunwoo closed the Google Docs tab and opened up his school email. He spent a couple of seconds typing faster than Lukas could even dream of and a few seconds later, a new unread email from hyunwooim@hnhs.co.nz came up on Lukas’ screen.

From: hyunwooim@hnhs.co.nz 

To: lukasbondevik@hnhs.co.nz 

Subject: history

Message:

Wtf that was so easy he barely looked at our work!!! also does he know that weve just been playing vidya 

games this whole class bc its so obvious lmao

we should go out again soon so we can decide our event n stuff, when r u free?

It didn’t take long for Lukas to begin his response. Although he used far less words, it took nearly double the amount of time for him to type it out and send.

From: lukasbondevik@hnhs.co.nz 

To: hyunwooim@hnhs.co.nz 

Subject: RE: history

Message:

I don’t think he does. We’d get in trouble if he did.  
  
Saturday?

Within thirty seconds, Lukas had received a response.

From: hyunwooim@hnhs.co.nz 

To: lukasbondevik@hnhs.co.nz 

Subject: RE: history

Message:

O dang i promised some mates that id go to jojo rabbit with them on saturday arvo. unless u wanna come? 

Its just mei, leon, and kiku from school. They’re all busy afterwards tho so we could just go to the library 

after and do our work?

Hyunwoo’s suggestion took Lukas a little off-guard. Lukas wasn’t really the type to spend time with anyone outside of school, with the exception of D&D sessions and his few extracurriculars. His immediate reaction was to turn down the offer, reject the thought of going and spend his Saturday in a safe state of solitude. 

But the more he ruminated on it, the more he realized that he actually did want to go. The thought of going to the movies with two strangers (Mei & Leon) was terrifying but having Kiku there reassured him. He’d been meaning to see Jojo Rabbit anyway. At least this way he’d get less people looking at him like he was weird, like he wasn’t allowed to go to the movie theaters on his own.

After a long pause, Lukas began to write his reply.

From: lukasbondevik@hnhs.co.nz 

To: hyunwooim@hnhs.co.nz 

Subject: RE: history

Message:

What time?

Again, almost immediately, he got a response.

From: hyunwooim@hnhs.co.nz 

To: lukasbondevik@hnhs.co.nz

Subject: RE: history

Message:

Movie starts at 1pm but ill swing by urs on my way over, prolly take like a half hour to walk?

Oh yayayaya btws i cant walk home wit u today bc i have photography club but ill see u at dnd tonight??

Lukas felt his heart drop slightly - ONLY SLIGHTLY - when he read that he’d be walking home alone. He wasn’t sure why though. Wasn’t being alone like his whole thing? Didn’t he love silence and solitude? Wasn’t his whole identity built around the fact that he never had to rely on another person ever!? To be disappointed about being alone felt strange to him, alien almost. He didn’t like it, he didn’t like not feeling like himself. 

He shook his head suddenly, trying to snap out of it before he spiraled into a puddle of confusion and stress. It was nearly time to go home and everyone else had begun packing up. Shutting his laptop, Lukas began the ordeal of trying to put the computer away at the same time as every other person in his class.

“Alright class,” the teacher began. “Remember your feedback and I will see you on...Friday.”

As soon as the teacher finished his sentence, students began pouring out of the classroom.

“See you tonight, Lukas,” Arthur and Andrei waved at him, before the two split off to their very different after school activities (student council and detention, respectively).

Lukas nodded at them, zipping up his bag and throwing it over his shoulder. Out of habit he waited for Hyunwoo, who was taking his sweet time putting away his stuff. He wasn’t sure why he was waiting, he didn’t have any need to. He could easily just walk home now and ruminate alone in his bedroom.

But still he waited and he waited until Hyunwoo was done, the two of them walking out of the classroom together. They walked down the staircase together and out of the building, Hyunwoo saying something or rather about memes that Lukas didn’t understand (but would pretend that he understood). When it came to part ways, he felt odd in a way that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. 

“Later L-diggity-dawg,” Hyunwoo said, doing the shaka brah sign, “See you tonight, I can’t wait to play the glorious Negalas!”

Lukas said nothing but he waved. He waved and he walked away, wondering why he felt so lonely.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!
> 
> Sorry for disappearing for a second time lmao. I do intend to finish this fanfiction but I am afraid it may take me some time. I've been awarded a scholarship to study and work in China for the next couple of months so the next chapter may not be on time but it will be here eventually!
> 
> The next chapter will be about their dnd session. I do realize now that if you haven't played dnd it may be somewhat confusing, so I was thinking it may be helpful to actually create character sheets for everyone and then link them in the next chapter? Let me know in the comments if that would be helpful or not, because I'm not sure if that's a good idea or if it's a little too much! :)


End file.
